Guild Wars

[snoopy369]

Your idea up there Jam is an interesting one - but as you get further into the game (especially in the Mursaat areas :P ) you will have some real issues getting attacked. The 20+ level mobs tend to target monks faster ... and often it's a battle of not casting too many heals to draw aggro vs letting people die. IMO a protecting monk would be better off (as you seem to be) than a spamhealing monk, especially with a good party.

Trust me, you WILL get nailed, hard, when you get post-ascenscion particularly. If you're in Riverside at 19.5 then you have been hitting pretty easy mobs for your level so far ... once you hit 20 you stop levelling, and that makes a big difference.

And definitely make sure to get infused - I somehow missed infusion the first time around, and got KILLED dead every time for the next few missions until I realized I needed infusion. Mursaat otherwise do 100hp/hit plus a big minus/second (never noticed HOW big, but it's like 8-10/sec)... you die quick.

[snoopy369]

Oh - and my Warrior 7 Cpl Carrot is in Ascalon (but with great armor and weapon ) and my Ranger 17 Angua vonUberwald is in ... hmm, one of the druidesque cities. Magrat Garlick (20 Mo/E) is in the Mursaat area, i think the 3rd or 4th area post-infusion (and now infused )

SirOsis, I don't think R/Mo would work very well ... Mo just doesn't add enough as a secondary. Mo works well as a secondary with Warrior (because it has some Adrenalin skills, plus you can use the +3hp/sec regen enchantment to help you tank better), and as a "primary" secondary with Elementalist (as E gives it a huge energy stash), but it doesn't add much to Ranger (who shouldn't be getting hit too often, thus no significant bonus from the enchantment, and there's no adrenalin to use).

Ranger should probably go with
1) Mesmer - lots of good things here, that help your bow skills work better; also some energy regen to let you use more bow skills
2) Warrior - lets you tank a bit better, and especially if you decide not to use a Bow as your primary but focus on the other ranger skills (wilderness or beast master i guess?). I've seen some R/W that use a dual weapon wield (one is a Longbow [for range, used to pull and to Pin Down]; one is an axe [for melee]) that are REALLY good. Ranger armor may not be as good as warrior armor, but R/W has some nifty uses.
3) E or N - not really useful, but you can curse or use some of the E skills that are similar (mostly earth/air/water). Also effective if you want your Ranger to be mostly a wilderness/beastmaster - you can add E or N to that to allow you to do some actual damage while doing your other things (especially N).

[Jamski]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Your idea up there Jam is an interesting one - but as you get further into the game (especially in the Mursaat areas :P ) you will have some real issues getting attacked. The 20+ level mobs tend to target monks faster ... and often it's a battle of not casting too many heals to draw aggro vs letting people die. IMO a protecting monk would be better off (as you seem to be) than a spamhealing monk, especially with a good party.

Trust me, you WILL get nailed, hard, when you get post-ascenscion particularly. If you're in Riverside at 19.5 then you have been hitting pretty easy mobs for your level so far ... once you hit 20 you stop levelling, and that makes a big difference.

And definitely make sure to get infused - I somehow missed infusion the first time around, and got KILLED dead every time for the next few missions until I realized I needed infusion. Mursaat otherwise do 100hp/hit plus a big minus/second (never noticed HOW big, but it's like 8-10/sec)... you die quick.

Well you've seen Flo's 9-enchant stack in action down on Thirsty River. What do you think? Having everyone in the party taking only half damage from all attacks is worth the energy spend IMHO, Divine Boon means the fewer heals I can chuck out were massive... having Magrat there to do the plain healing too was great, I had no energy issues at all because of that. I'll happily be the monk-team with you anytime Snoops.

Ok, you do get a better class of player in the international district on the whole too.

-Jam

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Jamski


Well you've seen Flo's 9-enchant stack in action down on Thirsty River. What do you think? Having everyone in the party taking only half damage from all attacks is worth the energy spend IMHO, Divine Boon means the fewer heals I can chuck out were massive... having Magrat there to do the plain healing too was great, I had no energy issues at all because of that. I'll happily be the monk-team with you anytime Snoops.

Ok, you do get a better class of player in the international district on the whole too.

-Jam

Well, I assumed you were acting as healing monk and not protecting monk - as the primary healing monk i think you would get attacked a lot, post-ascending. But, it works pretty well.

I was running 3 enchants - I only have enough divine favor for 20 energy a shot anyway, as i need my 7 fire skill in order to keep up the +12 energy fire artifact - i need to find a healing ankh of +12 energy, but haven't yet. Anyway, I ran Divine Boon and (normally) 2 Essence Bonds, meaning i get 9 back every 10 seconds from signet (not a lot, but add the +1 i was getting automatically per second, means i got 19 back every 10 seconds, equivalent to a +2 regen), plus I got a ton of energy from the essence bonds cast on the main tanks. I might consider casting Life Bond, but I'm a 0 in protection, so that would only cut 3 off of each damage, meaning I get a lot of damage my way ... Also, i'd consider keeping Mending on a couple of guys maybe, if the essence bond was paying off enough. It's a net -0.7 energy/second, but +4 health/second meaning that i'm trading at a 5.8 hp/energy ratio with 0 time taken essentially, not as good as my 71+(89) word of healing for 5 energy, but that takes time to cast ...

Another i like, if I had smiting prayers, is Balthazar's Spirit. +energy and +adrenalin each time hit ... nice.

[Jamski]

Its really MADE for a W/M that enchant. Warriors only need energy in battles so they can live with the regen hit.

I forgot to say, Snoopy, you REALLY REALLY should have put only 1 Essence Bond on. Put it on me, becuase I'm continually spammed with the feedback damage from the Life Bonds on the party. Well I didn't forget exactly, but the idea came to me last night. All those -0 damages flying over my head are like an energy goldrush. And yes, -0 counts as taking damage for Essence Bond

Now... how about a W/E with focus in Earth to use Armour of Earth, Watch Yourself! and Ward Against Melee The tank that would not die

-Jam

[snoopy369]

I think essence bond only counts physical damage, though ... i could be wrong, will test it out eventually Then i'd essence bond myself and life bond, and i'd be set. But i don't think that counts... it would practically be cheating

[Jamski]

Its target OTHER ally Both of them

[snoopy369]

Oh ... oh well. Though gwguru claims Essence Bond is target ally not target other ally, it's probably wrong.

It does claim "physical damage", though i'm not sure how the damage conversion works with life bond - whether it counts as physical or magical. I'd *think* magical, but i'd have to test it to be sure

[Jon Miller]

level 12, now

JM

[Main_Brain]

Got to 11 with my alt. W/N yesterday :=)
I think Ill play my lvl 20 Guy next Time and bring an Axe back...

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
Got to 11 with my alt. W/N yesterday :=)
I think Ill play my lvl 20 Guy next Time and bring an Axe back...

Yeh ... my 7 W/Mo is happy that my 20 Mo/E is getting lots of axes and whatnot for him to use Won't need a new weapon until 15 at the moment (have a near-max axe, actually, that could last longer!)

[Main_Brain]

What is the Max for Axes?

[snoopy369]

I think it's 5-28? I forget exactly. It's a huge range though...

edit: 6-28 is max damage for an axe. 12-22 I think is max for a sword (same average, roughly, tighter range).

[UnOrthOdOx]

Originally posted by Jamski

Now... how about a W/E with focus in Earth to use Armour of Earth, Watch Yourself! and Ward Against Melee The tank that would not die

-Jam

Hey, that's me.

Dropped armor of earth with all the disenchants floating around the desert though. Just picked up a 3rd knockdown skill for my hammer instead. They can't hurt me if they're on their back.

Before you start running into mobs that will remove your armor of earth, it's quite effective. All them little 0's popping up over your head are funny.

[snoopy369]

Yeh ... enchants are basically worthless post-ascending, until PvP anyway (and then i'm not sure). Too many disenchants